Cur"rent (k?r"rent), a. [OE.
currant, OF. curant, corant, p. pr. of
curre, corre, F. courre, courir, to
run, from L. currere; perh. akin to E. horse. Cf.
Course, Concur, Courant, Coranto.]
1. Running or moving rapidly.
[Archaic]
Like the current fire, that renneth
Upon a cord.
Gower.
To chase a creature that was current
then
In these wild woods, the hart with golden horns.
Tennyson.
2. Now passing, as time; as, the
current month.
3. Passing from person to person, or from
hand to hand; circulating through the community; generally
received; common; as, a current coin; a current
report; current history.
That there was current money in Abraham's
time is past doubt.
Arbuthnot.
Your fire-new stamp of honor is scarce
current.
Shak.
His current value, which is less or more as
men have occasion for him.
Grew.
4. Commonly estimated or
acknowledged.
5. Fitted for general acceptance or
circulation; authentic; passable.
O Buckingham, now do I play the touch
To try if thou be current gold indeed.
Shak.
Account current. See under
Account. -- Current money,
lawful money. Abbott.
Cur"rent, n. [Cf. F.
courant. See Current, a. ]
1. A flowing or passing; onward motion.
Hence: A body of fluid moving continuously in a certain
direction; a stream; esp., the swiftest part of it; as, a
current of water or of air; that which resembles a stream
in motion; as, a current of electricity.
Two such silver currents, when they
join,
Do glorify the banks that bound them in.
Shak.
The surface of the ocean is furrowed by
currents, whose direction . . . the navigator should
know.
Nichol.
2. General course; ordinary procedure;
progressive and connected movement; as, the current of
time, of events, of opinion, etc.
Current meter, an instrument for
measuring the velocity, force, etc., of currents. --
Current mill, a mill driven by a current
wheel. -- Current wheel, a wheel
dipping into the water and driven by the current of a stream or
by the ebb and flow of the tide.
Syn. -- Stream; course. See Stream.
